


More Than Meets the Eye

by engineerwenlock



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1960s, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Historical, Cold War, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Engineering, Space Race, nerds rule the world, nerdy badassery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 15:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14696619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engineerwenlock/pseuds/engineerwenlock
Summary: Rogue One College AU, Cold War Era. Oneshot. The year is 1965. In the nearly eight years since the launch of Sputnik, both the US and the USSR have made great strides in the Space Race, with the US just now preparing to launch two men into orbit around the Earth. The US is beginning to send regular combat units to Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement is in full swing. Meanwhile, Jyn Erso fights her battles on a smaller scale - as one of the first female students to study engineering at her university. However, since Galen and Lyra Erso got a chance to raise their daughter in this AU, Jyn has one important advantage.





	More Than Meets the Eye

Doctor Steven C. Glicksman was a difficult man to track down. Given the professor's rumored disdain for graduate students, Cassian could only assume the man was being difficult on purpose. But he was the only man on campus who could teach Cassian the sort of control surface analysis he needed for the next phase in his thesis, so Cassian called in a favor with the secretary in the Aerospace Engineering Department office and obtained a copy of his teaching schedule. Thus, he found himself sitting through Glicksman's sophomore-level lecture on projectile motion one Tuesday morning in March.

"As you can see, the acceleration due to gravity does not directly impact the x-acceleration." Glicksman intoned, "However, distance traveled in the x direction is a function of the flight time..."

Not only had Cassian learned this three years ago, but the professor's monotonous voice was enough to put a caffeinated squirrel to sleep. Cassian let his eyes wander around the room. His seat in the back right gave him a decent view of the space. He guessed the lecture hall could seat 150 students, give or take, but today it was about three-quarters full. The first two rows contained the eager students, taking furious notes. Several students in the back row were near catatonic.

There were two women in this class. One was in the third row, in a baby blue dress, her blonde hair sprayed within an inch of its life. She sat up straight, calmly following the lecture and taking notes in shorthand. Cassian guessed she had a perfect transcript of the lesson. The other girl slouched in the back left corner, casually thumbing through a magazine. She wore dark blue and brown. Her hair was pulled out of her face, save for a short fringe in front.

Glicksman's lecture tone suddenly became almost animated, "Now, let's see who had been paying attention. I need a few volunteers to work the sample problem on the board." Most of the students in the front row raised their hands eagerly, as did a few throughout the rest of the room, albeit more reluctantly. The professor selected one student from the second row. Then he said, to a student near the back, "Mr. Connix, would you kindly wake your neighbor for me?"

"Huh?" said the student, on awaking.

"Come up to the front and get started on the problem on the board. And let's see... You, in the back, with the magazine, assuming you're actually meant to be here and haven't just lost your way to the Miller Building, come up and solve for the velocity of the rocket at t = 1.5 seconds, as indicated on the board."

Cassian winced. The Miller Building was for Home Economics and Secretarial courses.

The professor handed each student a piece of chalk and indicated which section of the board was theirs.

"The rest of you," instructed Glicksman, "work the problem as well. Be prepared to critique the work of your peers. You have seven minutes." He sat down and began grading papers.

The volunteer diligently began working the problem. Cassian noted that he dropped a negative sign in his third line and likely wouldn't arrive at the correct solution. The kid was quick with a slide-rule though.

The student who had been sleeping wrote two lines before stopping to stare at the board as if it was causing him physical pain.

By the time Cassian turned his attention to the girl, she had already solved the problem. He glanced through her work, and though her handwriting was messy, he was pretty sure she was correct. After she checked back through her own work, she began writing on the board again. Cassian was surprised to see her estimating the drag coefficient and re-working the problem, this time with wind resistance included, assuming that the thrust from the engine was not constant, and otherwise easily wielding complex equations from memory that Cassian himself hadn't learned until his senior year.

She was almost finished when Glicksman called time and began looking over the students' work. He, too, started with the volunteer. The poor boy had made several arithmetic errors after Cassian had stopped watching him and ended up with a negative number for the velocity. He asked the class to point out where the student had gone wrong and admonished the kid against carelessness.

The sleeper hadn't finished and the professor just rolled his eyes and moved on to the girl's work. After careful scrutiny of the board, he asked the girl, "What is the meaning of this?"

"If you don't know, professor, perhaps you should ask someone in the Miller Building," replied the girl. She swept out of the room with her head held high.

At the end of class, Cassian cornered the professor and set up a time to meet with him about the control surface analysis. Then, as he was leaving, Cassian noticed that the girl had left her magazine in the classroom. He picked it up, hoping he'd be able to return it to her. Naturally, it wasn't a magazine at all, but the current issue of the Journal of Aerospace Engineering.


End file.
